NRLF 


to 


GIFT  OF 
LIrs.   Edith  Mos  es 


f®JiWF 


bat  gon$tittttc$  *  *  * 
a  finished  education 


^1 


Delivered  on  Commencement  Dav^ 

m  mni$  college,  m. «  «  « 

Klay  27,  i$96 «««««« 
By  Rei^.  E.  R.  RallocR,  D.  D.  « 


Q^'r    ol   Hvis.U«'l  H.sc 


WHAT  CONSTITUTES  A  FINISHED- 
EDUCATION. 


Delivered  ou  Commencement  Day,  at  Mills  College,  Cal., 
May  27,  1896,  by  Rev.  h.  H.  Hallock,  D.  D. 

Not  the  end  of  a  college  course — that  is  justly 
called  "  Commencement ;  "  not  the  end  of  learn- 
ing, for  no  true  woman  or  man  ever  ceases  to 
learn  ;  but  what  is  the  scope  and  aim  of  true 
education  ? 

In  art  and  music,  in  law  and  medicine,  some 
things  are  accounted  essential,  while  some  are 
optional.  To  discriminate  is  important,  lest  one 
expend  his  chief  strength  upon  the  superficial, 
to  the  neglect  of  the  radical  and  basic.  Let  us 
master  essentials  first,  graces  and  decorations,  if 
possible,  afterward.  That  the  singer  stand  in 
graceful  pose  is  desirable,  but  that  she  utter 
true  notes  is  imperative  ;  to  memorize  facts  is 
good,  but  to  /earn  to  think  is  indispensable. 

Education  does  not  consist  in  the  mere  knowl- 
edge of  facts.  In  this  '  bridging  decade  '  of  our 
century,  over  which  trooping  thoughts  unceas- 
ing tread,  not  a  tithe  of  important  facts  can 
memory  retain ;  but  education  is  not  in  mem- 
orized facts  ;  it  is  a  quality  of  mind  which  can 
master  facts  and  mould  mankind. 

If  education  consisted  in  memorizing,  what  an 
illimitable  list  of  items  stretches  hopelessly  be- 
fore us ! 


742914 


.  .tu. literature,  for  instance,  whose  gems  sparkle 
•  in' £li*e<doni€' around  and  above  us  like  stars  in 
the  night  sky,  how  many,  many  authors,  classic 
and  modern,  there  are  whom  one  must  know ;  so 
much  art  also  to  master,  for  all  literature  has 
illumined  itself  with  the  artists'  pencil ;  so 
much  science  to  study,  for  science  has  threaded 
literature  through  and  through  with  her  flying 
shuttle  ;  language  and  history  and  commerce 
must  be  understood,  for  they  all  have  a  litera- 
ture of  their  own;  and  jurisprudence  and  the 
great  philosophies,  psychology  and  sociology,  all 
must  be  somewhat  familiar  if  we  would  claim 
to  have  grasped  the  scope  and  richness  of  gen- 
eral literature.  Omit  either  of  these,  and  your 
literary  education  is  partial. 

Or,  if  one  would  become  versed  in  the  classics  ; 
the  wealth  of  many  tongues.  Oriental  and  Occi- 
dental, ancient  and  recent,  displays  a  boundless 
field  ;  so  great  that  life  is  too  short  to  explore 
even  the  vestibule  of  the  many  linguistic  man- 
sions which  the  ages  have  builded — with  strange 
alphabets  and  foreign  superstructure — until  the 
mind  wearies  with  the  endeavor,  and  we  become 
content  at  length  to  taste  only  a  few  tongues  of 
the  earth,  and  let  the  rest  wait  for  a  world  that 
has  more  time  in  which  to  explore  the  mysteries 
of  manifold  human  speech. 

Or,  in  science  what  awaits  us  ?  Not  only  must 
we  master  the  old  laws  and  principles  which  our 
fathers  knew,  but  on  whirling,  steam-driven 
wheels,  and  along  the  line  of  winged  wires,  must 


we  fly,  to  keep  abreast  of  the  latest  iu  Roentgen's 
rays  or  Tesla's  lights,  the  new  surgery  and 
pathology,  telescopic  and  microscopic  achieve- 
ments of  each  flitting  hour. 

If  knowledge  of  facts  were  an  essential  edu- 
cation, the  scientist  must  be  ever  in  pursuit  of 
the  newest,  lest  he  become  a  fossil,  foraging  over 
ancient  and  forgotten  fields.  For  we  tread  to-day 
the  highway  of  discovery,  and  we  tread  it  fast. 
Edison  and  his  compeers  keep  us  out  of  breath 
in  the  chase,  and  make  earnest  haste  themselves; 
for  life  is  short,  and  the  far  fringe  only  of  the 
fertile  forest  is  yet  explored.  Secrets  of  matter 
and  of  mind,  and  the  universe  of  heavenly  being, 
lie  all  about  us,  and  only  just  now  have  we  lifted 
a  lower  corner  of  the  enshrouding  veil.  We 
cannot  even  inventory  the  facts  and  phenomena 
of  the  universe  ;  we  can  only  sample  them,  and 
much  that  we  learn  we  soon  forget. 

How,  then,  is  education  possible  ?  It  is  possi- 
ble, since  education  lies  not  in  the  secure  posses- 
sion of  facts,  but  in  that  quality  of  mind  which 
can  comprehend,  classify  and  compare  events 
and  principles  as  they  develop.  Disciplined 
mind  is  educated  mind,  though  multitudes  of 
facts  taught  in  the  college  curriculum  may  have 
been  forgotten  or  never  mastered.  Education  is 
mental  quality. 

The  educated  mind  sees  a  bone  bleaching  on 
the  prairie,  and  builds  the  extinct  animal  that 
owned  it ;  watches  an  eclipse,  and  knows  that 
laws  of  planetary  motion  produce  it ;  finds  a  bit 


of  quartz,  scents  a  La  France  rose,  sees  the  flying 
cloud,  and  from  each  deducts  the  proximity  of 
gold,  the  evolution  of  the  flower,  the  law  of  the 
dew-point  and  air  current.  Education  is  never 
surprised  into  superstition,  never  loses  balance, 
for  it  apprehends  the  controlling  law.  While 
there  is  much  that  the  educated  man  knows  not, 
the  key  to  all  knowledge  dangles  from  his  wrist, 
and  he  can  discourse  more  wisely  about  the  new- 
est discovery  than  he  who  never  learned  to  think 
can  upon  familiar  themes.  This  educated  quality 
is  attainable.  It  is  the  power  to  think.  And 
that  is  truest  education  which  teaches  power  of 
thought  rather  than  that  which  crams  the  mind 
with  masses  of  slippery  things  called  facts.  A 
mind  may  become  enc3'clopedic  in  its  possessions, 
but  be  neither  resourceful  nor  efflcient  in  shap- 
ing the  course  of  human  progress. 

Now,  there  are  certain  vast  areas  of  thought, 
of  varying  altitudes,  which  the  mind  should 
learn  to  travel  intelligently.  If  either  of  these 
be  omitted,  education  is  partial  and  one-sided.  If 
either  is  omitted,  the  student,  for  lack  of  it, 
may  be  left  wholly  at  sea  in  some  vital  depart- 
ment of  his  being,  and  disaster  inevitably  follow. 

When  stormy  seas  are  to  be  traversed,  the  sea- 
man must  know  all  the  laws  of  navigation;  wind 
and  sails,  placing  the  cargo  and  location  of  the 
ports,  the  compass  and  currents  and  the  log, — 
all  must  be  familiar  unto  him  who  is  to  com- 
mand the  merchant  marine  on  treacherous  main. 


And  since  man  is  composite,  and  he,  too,  sails  a 
perilous  sea,  from  port  to  port,  lie  who  will  make 
the  voyage  in  safety  should  know  the  whole  na- 
ture of  man  and  his  destiny,  lest  he  be  surprised, 
and  so  wrecked  upon  uncharted  rocks  or  driven 
upon  disastrous  breakers. 

I  plead  to-day  for  this  all-round  educa- 
tion. The  world  clamors  for  liberalism;  so  do 
I.  The  world  would  have  men  broad;  so  would 
I.  But  it  is  sometimes  forgotten  that  greatness 
demands  height  as  well  as  breadth.  A  phrenolo- 
gist once  examined  the  skull  of  a  friend,  and 
said :  "You  have  a  broad  brain  and  if  you  only 
had  half  an  inch  more  elevation  you  would  be  a 
genius." 

There  is  much  education  to-day  which  seems 
broad  and  liberal,  but  because  it  reaches  not  unto 
the  side  toward  God,  is  partial  and  perilous. 
How  can  that  soul  be  well-defined  and  safe  whose 
side  that  faces  its  Creator  and  King  has  not  even 
been  surveyed ! 

In  our  plea  for  the  highest  education,  we  are 
not  asking  for  anything  narrow  or  eccentric,  but 
we  take  our  stand  with  the  modern  critic  in  his 
demand  for  breadth  and  liberalism,  only  we  go  a 
step  further;  we  demand  that  education  be  suffi- 
ciently broad  to  study  the  entire  man,  not  a  seg- 
ment of  his  being;  that  it  embrace  soul  as  well 
as  intellect,  and  eternity  as  well  as  time.  If  we 
study  Nature,  we  do  not  limit  ourselves  to  the 
mineral  and  vegetable  kingdom,  learning  of 
rocks   and  rivers,  grass  and  herbs   alone,-^but 


we  rise  quickly  to  the  animal,  and  spend  our 
strength  upon  the  fleet  horse,  the  succulent  mut- 
ton, the  racy  game  and  the  laws  of  production 
and  improvement.  And  so,  if  we  would  study 
man,  God's  masterpiece  for  whom  all  else  ex- 
ists, we  must  study  not  only  his  body  and  mind, 
but  his  soul  also.  If  we  would  know  man  in  the 
far  reach  of  his  princely  being,  surely  we  cannot 
leave  unlearned  that  part  which  alone  is  immor- 
tal, and  which  chiefly  differentiates  him  from  the 
beasts  that  perish. 


* 


Education  practically  begins  with  the  study  of 
simple  phenomena,  with  the  physical  and  mer- 
cantile, matters  of  food  and  clothing.  Witness 
a  carpet  weaver  of  Glasgow  who  knows  all  about 
the  art  of  her  loom,  and  can  evolve  its  finest 
fruit.  She  is  educated  in  a  somewhat  low  and 
and  limited  sphere;  her  education  is  practical 
and  commercial,  and  enables  her  to  earn  her  liv- 
ing. So  is  that  man  educated  who  can  pitch  the 
latest  curve  in  baseball,  or  organize  the  most  re- 
sistless wedge  in  football.  Neither  department 
is  the  noblest  possible,  yet  each  is  the  product 
of  training,  each  requires  courage,  self-control 
and  some  brain.  The  physical  is  always  impor- 
tant, but  the  plane  is  comparatively  low  and  the 
orbit  of  revolution  narrow. 

Next,  we  rise  to  matters  of  classification;  to 
botany  and  geology,  biology  and  physics;  we 
move  upward  into  the  science  of  government,  and 
to  questions  sociological,  international,  political. 


to  literature  and  fine  art;  and  thus,  with  magnif- 
icent sweep,  the  horizon  has  broadened,  and  we 
now  look  upon  a  world  above  the  common,  out 
into  the  realm  of  genius  and  statesmanship.  We 
have  climbed  the  pyramid,  from  the  drifting  hot 
sands  about  its  desert  base,  to  where  the  air 
moves  in  fresher  currents  and  the  outlook  wid- 
ens ;  here  is  a  broad  plateau,  and  the  State  now 
provides  for  the  education  of  its  sons  and  daugh- 
ters in  this  vast  field  which  vitally  touches  the 
welfare  of  society.  The  State  may  have  been 
slow  in  meeting  this  demand  for  higher  educa- 
tion, but  she  has  grandly  provided  for  it  now, 
and  the  day  which  is  dawning  is  an  auspicious 
one  for  our  Republic. 

Thus  wealth  is  increased  as  well  as  brain. 
The  educated  person  no  longer  stands  aghast 
before  the  mountain,  but  proceeds  to  tunnel  it 
for  his  railroad  or  sink  a  shaft  to  find  its  gold. 
The  forest  is  no  longer  a  wilderness  unto  him, 
but  a  nest  of  treasures  which  he  proceeds  to  un- 
cover for  mills  and  masts,  houses  and  ships. 
The  sea  is  no  longer  a  wild,  wide  thing,  the  re- 
lentless, mysterious  shrine  of  the  mermaid  and 
the  sceptered  Neptune,  but  a  grand  highway  of 
commerce,  plowed  with  the  keels  of  many  a 
golden  argosy,  dotted  with  white  wing  of  sail,  or 
churned  to  foam  by  the  triple  screw  of  his  ocean 
greyhound.  Great  problems  of  capital  and  of 
labor  open  to  his  master  key,  and  the  educated 
man  or  woman  finds  no  gate  locked  which  leads 
to  fortune  and  to  statecraft.     To  learn  to  think 


in  all  these  departmeuts  and  traverse  intelli- 
gently these  many  rich  fields  of  knowledge  is  to 
be  educated  far  beyond  the  necessities  of  a  mea- 
gre, physical  existence. 

It  is  not  long,  however,  before  the  student  who 
has  gone  thus  far  in  the  study  of  social  and  po- 
litical econoni}'',  discovers  that  laws  of  matter 
and  of  might  are  not  sufficient  to  solve  some 
problems  that  are  rife  in  our  seething  communi- 
ties. 

Adjustments  between  man  and  man,  or  nation 
and  tribe,  king  and  subject,  labor  and  capital, 
involve  another  element  which  the  finger  of  force 
and  of  mere  philosophy  is  too  short  to  reach. 
Something  in  man  rises  higher  than  the  stretch 
of  his  stature,  and  education  adequate  for  the 
hour  must  strike  into  the  region  of  morals  and 
eternal  rectitude.  Not  broadly  educated,  there- 
fore, is  any  man  until  he  has  acquired  some  just 
criterion  of  judgment  concerning  the  claims  of 
the  human  conscience  touching  character  and 
personal  righteousness.  So  the  State  teaches 
morals,  and  offers  men  a  potent  solvent  for  many 
a  high  problem  in  ethics  which  the  lower  educa- 
tion could  not  furnish.  This  is  an  essential 
part  of  the  higher  education,  and  deeply  concerns 
the  health  of  the  body  politic.  The  State  wisely 
provides  for  this,  since  it  is  vital  to  its  welfare, 
and  an  important  element  in  its  honorable  self- 
perpetuation.  But  the  highest  plane  of  human 
life  and  need  is  not  yet  reached.  Mind  and 
morals  do  not  exhaust  the  man. 


Beyoud  the  palaces  of  kings,  and  the  outlying 
homes  of  toil;  beyond  and  above  the  galleries  of 
art  and  castles  of  the  knights;  beyond  the  region 
of  chivalry  and  gallantry,  the  commerce  of  mer- 
chants and  rights  of  sovereigns,  and  all  the 
vexed  questions  of  human  life  and  society,  be- 
hold a  world  of  temples !  Listen  to  the  unending 
echoes  of  worshipful  music  encircling  the  globe  ; 
witness  a  conscious  immortality, — a  longing 
look  beyond  the  westward  hills  and  the  sunset, 
where  stands  the  throne  of  the  living  God; — a 
wondering  what  is  for  us  in  that  vast  unknown. 
Yes,  above  the  reach  of  the  mercantile  and  the 
aesthetic  is  a  lofty  plateau  of  human  thought 
and  life,  unto  which  many  often  aspire  and  all 
sometimes  glance, — a  region  that  lies  open  unto 
the  face  of  God,  silent  but  great, — the  region  of 
the  soul ;  and  we  cannot  deal  adequately  with 
problems  that  vex  the  race  until  we  have  studied 
there  the  religious  and  spiritual  nature  of  man, 
and  have  looked  honestly  into  his  relation  unto 
his  Maker  and  his  future. 

That  person  is  therefore  only  partially  edu- 
cated who  has  never  explored  the  realm  of  re- 
ligion; not  narrow,  sectarian  religion,  but  relig- 
ion broad  and  eternal — the  relation  of  man  to 
God,  which  is  at  the  very  heart  centre  of  all 
lesser  and  human  intercourse.  The  State  does 
not  educate  its  students  in  religion  ;  probably  it 
cannot ;  yet  the  necessity  exists,  and  somehow, 
somewhere,  this  vital,  vast  field  of  study  must  be 
invaded.     How,  for  instance,  can  one  really  ap- 


lO 


prehend  the  throes  of  early  Christian  story,  the 
revolutions  of  pagan  Rome,  the  peopling  of  the 
Catacombs,  and  the  transformations  of  ancient 
empire  that  has  no  conception  of  the  Christ ! 

How  can  one  fully  comprehend  the  ecclesiasti- 
cism  of  medieval  ages  who  has  no  experience  of 
the  power  of  religious  conviction  to  master  the 
soul  beyond  all  other  motive  !  Who  can  analyze 
the  crusades ! 

Who  can  understand  the  mystery  of  the  May- 
flower,— cradle  of  our  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
— if  he  have  never  entered  the  domain  of  the 
spiritual  or  ever  felt  that  power  profounder  than 
patriotism,  tenderer  than  home  ties,  more  lasting 
than  love  of  life,  which  was  able  to  make  men  ob- 
livious to  all  these  in  supreme  devotion  to  the 
God  they  loved ! 

History  cannot  be  read  intelligently  without 
knowledge  of  religion;  for  religion  is  the  golden 
thread  shot  through  the  fabric  which  gives  it 
meaning  and  life.  And  God  himself  is  the  key 
of  history;  to  discern  God's  plans  will  solve 
countless   combinations   otherwise  inexplicable. 

Education,  therefore,  is  not  complete  until  it 
has  carefully  studied  not  only  the  facts  but  the 
basic  principles  of  the  religious  nature,  and 
Christ  the  crown  and  glory  of  humanity,  the 
sole  supreme  solvent  of  the  stupendous  problems 
still  rife  and  unsettled  in  human  society. 

Hence  the  necessity  for  the  Christian  college. 
If  the  State  cannot  teach  religion  in  its  broad 
and  eternal    verities,  private  benevolence  must. 


II 


For  without  this,  the  key  of  the  highest  human 
situation  is  still  lost ;  the  mind  without  this  has 
still  a  fallow  field,  and  the  worst  of  it  is,  it  is  the 
home  lot,  nearest  God;  and  until  this  fallow 
ground  is  broken  up  and  these  home  acres  tilled 
around  the  spot  of  our  birth  and  the  hearthstone 
of  our  God,  finest  fruits  cannot  appear  and  the 
vast  bulk  of  our  yet  unexpended  life  still  lies  in 
black  and  solemn  shadow.  Without  religion  the 
rocket  only  flashes  a  little  more  brilliantly  for  a 
moment,  but  goes  out  into  a  darkness  the  more 
dreadful  by  contrast. 


*     * 


Even  the  present  economy  of  this  world  can- 
not be  fully  understood  without  a  knowledge  of 
God  and  redemption.  As  well  stand  amid  the 
whirr  of  the  spindles  in  the  spinning-room  and 
expect  to  iinderstand  the  mill  from  that  alone, 
as  aim  to  apprehend  creation  by  standing  on  the 
periphery  of  the  planet  and  seeing  the  phenom- 
ena there.  You  must  step  up  to  the  office  to 
know  the  mill ;  approach  the  throne  to  under- 
stand the  world. 

No  education  is  adequate,  however  fine,  which 
stops  short  of  Christ.  The  pivotal  point  in  hu- 
man history  is  Calvary ;  and  who  can  under- 
stand the  world  with  Calvary  left  out  ?  The  turn- 
ing upward  of  humanity  begins  at  the  cross,  and 
they  who  omit  the  study  of  the  Redeemer  from 
their  curriculum,  have  only  viewed  the  complex 
factory  from  a  subordinate  room ;  they  have 
seen  the  train  whizz  past  them  in  the  night,  but 


12 


have  not  stood  in  the  engineer's  cab  and  seen 
him  manipulate  the  throttle  and  set  the  air- 
brakes as  he  rounds  perilous  curves  with  his 
precious  human  freight.  They  have  examined 
phenomena  carefully  but  not  from  the  Gover- 
nor's throne;  nor  have  they  discovered  God's 
ultimate  motive  in  the  creation  of  immortal  souls. 

The  conqueror  of  the  world  is  to  be  Christian- 
ity, but  "Christianity  will  not  conquer  the  world 
until  it  leads  its  thought."  That  day  is  already 
dawning ;  there  is  a  distinctly  marked  reaction 
toward  the  recognition  of  an  intelligent,  personal 
Creator  and  the  need  of  a  knowledge  of  him. 

Science  finds  that  she  cannot  solve  her  equation 
and  ignore  this  unknown  quantity,  God,  and 
the  leaders  of  the  world's  scientific  thinking  are 
beginning  to  admit  this.  Witness  the  latest 
utterances  of  Darwin  and  Huxley  and  many 
others. 

You  must  look  at  man  from  God's  standpoint 
or  you  are  not  fully  educated.  I  would  rather 
m}^  daughter  be  graduated  from  a  truly  Christian 
college  whence  she  had  fully  imbibed  the  spirit 
of  the  Christ,  than  from  the  highest  secular  uni- 
versity on  the  globe ;  for  thus  she  will  have  at- 
tained a  rounder,  truer,  more  complete  education. 
Breadth  is  not  the  only  desirable  dimension. 
The  Christian  scholar  sees  a  horizon  utterly  un- 
attainable to  him  of  secularities  only.  The  sec- 
ular student  sees  as  best  he  can,  but  he  is  near 
the  earth,  where  atmospheric  aberration  and  the 
curvature  of   the  surface   fatally  handicap  his 


13 

vision,  but  he  who  learns  to  sit  with  God  on  his 
throne,  to  see  with  God's  eyes,  and  rise  to  the 
height  of  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  above  the 
mercenary  and  the  sordid,  to  measure  man  with 
the  measuring  rod  of  the  Redeemer,  he  alone  is 
truly  educated.  Our  culture  may  better  lack 
detail  than  to  lack  breadth  ;  but  it  may  far  bet- 
ter lack  breadth  even  than  to  lack  altitude! 

Education  therefore  is  not  finished, — I  had 
almost  said  is  not  truly  begun, — until  it  has  led 
the  soul  to  reckon  with  its  King. 

The  cheek  may  blush  with  beauty,  the  brain 
display  its  brilliant  bloom,  genius  sparkle  from 
every  finger-tip,  but  if  there  be  no  vital  spark  of 
God  within  the  soul,  no  divine  cultus  looking 
toward  the  Eternities, — we  shall  have  blossomed 
but  to  fade. 

True  education  is  essentially  and  always 
Christian  education! 

"  Let  knowledge  grow  from  more  to  more. 
But  more  of  reverence  in  us  dwell ; 
That  mind  and  soul,  according  well. 
May  make  one  music  as  before, 

But  vaster."  — Tennyson,  In  Memoriam. 

There  is  one  other  feature  of  a  true  education 
which  must  be  achieved  before  it  can  be  consid- 
ered ideal.  It  must  rise  into  the  domain  of 
motive :  it  must  exist  not  for  itself  alone,  but  to 
lift  society.  It  must  be  unselfish,  magnani- 
mous, charitable,  beneficent.  It  must  not  only 
know  God,  but  join  hands  with  God  to  accom- 
plish the  high  and  holy  purpose  which  He 
reveals  and  inspires. 


^4 

Make  the  most  of  yourselves,  young  ladies, 
seeking  education  and  refinement  that  you  may 
thus  become  worthy  specimens  of  the  Creator's 
art,  and  thus  glorify  the  Artist  ;  but  there  is 
another  aim  which  must  not  be  omitted.  Even 
God  does  not  live  solely  to  be  good:  He  was 
good  before  He  created  anything,  and  would 
have  been  forever  good  without  creation:  but 
having  created,  as  we  study  His  evolutionary 
processes,  we  find  Him  leading  His  people,  by 
hint  and  premium  and  prophecy,  into  an  ever 
finer  type,  an  ever  clearer  likeness  unto  Him- 
self. That  is,  God  exists  not  only  to  be  good 
but  to  do  good  ;  by  His  love  and  life  to  lift  men 
unto  His  throne.  And  the  truly  educated  soul 
must  have  caught  this  conception  and  have 
adopted  for  himself  this  high  ideal.  "  Non  no- 
bis solum  ^  sed  bono  publico!'^  Be  good  that  you 
may  also  be  useful :  multiply  your  talents  that 
by  expending  them  without  stint  you  may  better 
humanity  by  all  that  has  bettered  you.  This  is 
the  grand  closing  chapter  of  our  educational 
text  book  :  "  Not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister." 

The  great  mountain  which  all  admire,  rising 
from  the  rosy-blue  waters  of  Puget  Sound,  was 
called  by  the  Indians  "  Tacoma,"  "  nourishing 
breast."  For  that  Mt.  Tacoma,  with  her  snowy 
heights  gleaming,  blushing,  incarnadined  with 
many  a  crimson  sunset,  glistening  under  the 
noon-day  glare,  or  chill  and  ghostly  on  moon- 
light nights,  crowned  at  14,000  feet  with  the  eter- 


15 

nal  solitude  of  its  own  sublimity,  was  not  content 
to  be  merely  grand  and  majestic  among  mount- 
ains, admired  and  adored  of  men — but  because 
it  was  supremely  higli  and  uncommon  broad,  it 
sent  down  from  every  shining  flank  and  gleam- 
ing glacier-bank  a  river  into  every  valley  at  its 
feet, — a  river  to  feed  the  people, — from  its  rip- 
ples with  sweetest  fish,  and  from  its  banks  with 
fruit  and  berry,  enriching  man  with  lofty  timber 
and  feasting  him  with  the  deer  that  feed  among 
the  lily- pads.  "  Nourishing  breast ''  they  named 
the  unspeakable  mountain,  for  it  ministers  unto 
men,  even  though  through  all  its  existing  days 
it  might  have  sung  : 

"  Eternal  snows  for  ages  past  have  crowned  my  hoary  head, 
And  vernal  flowers  for  aeons  past  have  wreathed  my  emerald  bed; 
Centuries'  storms  have  beat  my  breast,  and  tempests  cleft  my  side 
Until  my  wounds  by  thousands  are  increased  and  multiplied  ; 
Yet,  whether  day  its  gladness  brings  or  night  the  earth  enshrouds 
Still  I,  in  silent  grandeur  stand,  and  calmly  kiss  the  clouds." 

But  if  the  most  memorable  characteristic  of 
God's  grandest  mountain,  immortalized  in  its 
native  name,  is  giving^ — even  the  wear  and  tear 
of  the  tempest  contributing  to  enrich  the  savage 
at  its  feet,  as  Christ  the  sinning  world, — surely 
the  educated  soul,  truly  knowing  God  and 
climbing  high  into  His  eternal  counsels,  must 
take  the  final  step  of  true  education  and  become, 
like  Him,  beneficent! 

With  that  lesson  learned,  education  is  a  fin- 
ished thing  ;  not  ended,  never  ended,  but  round- 
ed and  rare,  ready  to  take  high  place  among 
God's  efficient  forces  to  make  men  better. 


i6 

Young  ladies  of  the  graduating  class  :  it  has 
been  your  privilege,  rare  among  women,  to  re- 
ceive from  your  Alma  Mater  an  education  both 
broad  and  high. 

You  have  been  taught  "  Mens  sana  in  corpore 
sano^"*  but  you  have  also  learned  that  the  soul  is 
ignorant  until  it  learns  the  secret  of  trust  in 
God.  Be  loyal  to  the  Christian  teaching  im- 
parted here,  and  you  shall  command  the  respect 
of  the  world's  Redeemer,  of  the  world  itself,  and 
of  your  own  soul  forever. 

Thus,  like  Mt.  Tacoma,  crowned  with  the  sun, 
clothed  in  perpetual  ermine,  fertile  valleys  ever 
fruitful  at  its  feet,  you  shall  stand  among 
mankind  a  benediction,  "  blessing  and  being 
blessed,"  hastening  on  the  time  when  all  shad- 
ows shall  flee  away  and  the  dawn  of  eternal 
righteousness  shine  clear  above  the  eastern  hill- 
tops ;  then  shall  human  life  be  bright  and 
beautiful,  because  Christian,  and  true  education 
become  universal,  when  all  shall  know  the  truth, 
and  ''  the  truth  shall  make  men  free." 


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